


Fashion Show Butterflies

by tbehartoo



Series: LukaNette September 2019 [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, F/M, Juleka is just the best matchmaker, Luka is a fashion design student, Marinette is a civil engineering major, Required courses can be such a pain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-05
Updated: 2019-09-05
Packaged: 2020-10-10 09:47:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20525990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tbehartoo/pseuds/tbehartoo
Summary: Luka is certainly not expecting Marinette to be the person he's supposed to design an outfit for, for this semester's fashion finale. Turns out she may have some designs of her own in mind for her classmate's older brother.





	Fashion Show Butterflies

“Hey, Jules,” Luka said with a smile. Furrowing his brows he asked, “What are you doing here? Don’t you have class right now?”

Juleka gave her brother a quick side hug, rolling her eyes. 

“You’ve _ already forgotten _ that **my ** class has to model the clothes that **your **class is working on for your final project?” She gave his shoulder a weak punch. “Lame.”

“Oh yeah,” Luka mumbled. “Designing for the common man. What a theme.”

”You might be making an outfit for me. I’d really love a leather jacket with those studs I was showing you,” she said batting her eyelashes at him. She stopped when he tutted and shook his head ‘No’. “Maybe you ought to make that ‘Designing for the common man **Or **woman,” Juleka added.

“How about we just use the word person and leave it at that?” a short girl with black hair and bright blue eyes said as she joined the two. “Hey, Juleka!” she greeted the tall girl. “I saw your new bike in the parking lot. That’s a beautiful purple color on the tank. Did you get it to match your hair?”

“Naw,” she mumbled. “It’s just my favorite color.”

“It’s a beautiful shade no matter why you picked it,” Marinette said in earnest.

“Thanks,” Juleka returned.

“I hope you’re Luka,” Marinette said turning to the young man, “otherwise I missed what the teacher was saying - again.” She held out her hand. Luka just stared at it with a frown. “I’m Marinette and I’ll be your model,” her voice trailed off but she held out her hand and patiently waited.

“Luka doesn’t really like shaking hands or full on hugs,” Juleka said quietly. “He’s not usually a touchy-feely kind of person and hasn’t been as long as I can remember.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” the girl said curling her fingers into a fist. “How do you feel about fist bumps?”

Luka smiled at her in relief and held out his own fist, which she gently tapped.

Juleka’s name was called, and she hurried over to Mr. Haprele for her assignment to a designer. Luka and Marinette stared at each other for a moment.

“You’re so tiny!” Luka blurted and then slapped his hands over his face. 

Marinette hid a smile behind her hand, and Luka swore he heard the faintest giggle.

“Yeah, sorry you don’t have Juleka as your model, she has the height for it. If it’s any consolation, when Alya suggested we transfer into the same public speaking class as the cute guy in line in front of her, I didn’t realize that I’d have to either walk on your runway or mime in the park.” 

She turned and pointed over her shoulder to the brown skinned girl with ombre orange hair chatting with the tall, tanned, well-muscled jock whose bleached bangs had reached for the sky.

“Kim’s a nice enough guy, and they have continued to base their relationship on their mutual love of superheroes, but this class asks us to do a lot more out in public than the other one. I still wish I’d stayed in Mr. Fu’s class where all we had to do was give two speeches in front of like twenty people tops. Here it’s going to be at least what-” she looked into the startled turquoise eyes of the boy beside her, “- like two hundred or even more?” She shuddered. “I’m going to be a civil engineer. The most public speaking I will have to do will be to a city council of ten people who won’t even understand the technicalities of what I’m explaining to them. Why do I need to fall flat on my face for that?” 

“Wait, what does walking the cat walk or miming in the park have to do with public speaking?” Luka asked confused. “Surely you have to well- speak?” 

“Thank you! That’s what I said,” Marinette exclaimed.. “Apparently we have to learn about speaking without saying a word. Body language can convey a lot of information, and we are supposed to learn how to radiate confidence so that our audience will pay attention to what we are saying.”

“You certainly seem to have a lot of confidence,” Luka said as he pulled out the workbook page he needed to mark down his model’s measurements.

“Well I’ll have to let Mr. Haprele know that his previous acting lessons have paid off,” she replied with a smile. She leaned in closer and he bent closer to hear her quiet confession. “To tell you the honest truth, I’m fully convinced I’m going to trip and fall on my face out there. I’m a total klutz when I’m nervous. And standing in front of all those people is already making me nervous.”

“Then why do this?” Luka asked confused. “Surely miming in the park would have let you keep both feet on the ground.”

The cheeks of the girl suddenly bloomed with a rosy color. She took a deep breath and leaned in closer. Luka felt his heart speed up with her nearness, but it didn’t bother him as much as it usually would.

“Well, my friend Juleka told me that her brother was in this class and he’d be one of the designers,” she began. Luka startled. “And when she showed me a picture of her older brother,” she broke off and cleared her throat nervously, “I, uh, I decided I’d prefer to take a chance and walk the cat walk rather than stay safely in the park.”

They spent another silent moment just looking at each other. Luka trying to see if the girl was teasing or somehow taunting him, Marinette waiting for rejection from the boy she’d finally just met.

“Then I’ll do everything I can to help you feel safe,” he whispered. “You won’t have to be nervous walking in what I create for you, because-” he smiled brightly at her, “because I’ll make sure there’s nothing that could trip you up or bring you down.” He gave her hand a quick squeeze, “I’ll take care of everything.”

Marinette’s smile grew at his words and she heaved a sigh of relief. Her blush grew when she realized that he hadn’t let go of her hand.

The night of the fashion show arrived and Marinette’s nerves came back full force.

“Quit fidgeting, Nette,” Luka said soothingly as he straightened the shoulder seams of the bolero jacket she wore. He left his hands on her shoulders until he felt her release the tension she was holding there. “You’re the prettiest person in the entire building and all you have to do is walk to the end of the the little hall, turn around, and come back. We’ve practiced on the runway, you’ve worn the shoes for a week so they feel familiar, and there’s nothing that you can get caught on or trip you up.”

“I know that Luka, but I saw how many people are out there,” she said with a huff. “I swear that are so many butterflies in my stomach I’ll be lifting off and landing on the moon soon.”

“Marinette, you need to breathe with me,” Luka said as he reached for her hands to help ground her. “Breathe in.” He counted to four. “Now hold it.” He counted again. “Release your breath and your nerves,” he prompted her.

It only took a few more rounds for Marinette’s pallor to ease, but Luka could feel how she was still trembling.

“I have an idea, but I need to check with my teacher,” he said. “I’ll be right back, but remember I promised to keep you safe.”

“I know you will,” she said through a tremulous smile. “You’ve been so thoughtful about everything.”

“Well I do think an awful lot about you,” he said with a wink before going to talk to his teacher.

When time came for Marinette to go on she took a deep breath and stepped out boldly and with confidence. 

Luka was at her side allowing her to use his steady arm to keep her securely on the stage. 

When they got to the end of the run way Luka took her hand from his arm and turned her around like a music box doll. The skirt she was wearing twirled like a cloud, her dazzling smile was truly angelic. Luka nearly tripped on their turn around, but Marinette kept them upright.

“I’ll keep you safe, too,” she whispered as he blushed.

They made it to the backstage area and began celebrating.

“You did it!” Luka said smiling down at her.

“We did it,” Marinette gently corrected as she gingerly wound her free hand behind his back.

Luka bent forward so that their foreheads touched. It was the most physically intimate he’d ever been with the girl over the last few months, but it felt natural to be so close to her this way.

“You’re right,” he whispered for only her to hear. “_ We _ did it.”

He placed a feather light kiss on Marinette’s forehead and stepped back. While he was happy to be near Marinette, he was reaching the limits of his comfort and needed to break all connection to her.

Marinette smiled up at him. “Let’s go sneak in the back so we can see Juleka walk,” she suggested eagerly.

Luka merely nodded and followed her to the backstage exit. As they made their way through the hallway to the house where the audience sat, Luka realized that Marinette was pulling far ahead of him. He didn’t want her _ that _far away. He reached out and brushed the back of her hand. Immediately she hooked her pinkie around his index finger and tugged him along.

Luka’s grin widened. He was going to make sure Juleka’s new jacket had all the studs he could possibly afford.

**Author's Note:**

> This piece is one of four planned pieces for LukanetteSeptember2019 over on Tumblr. I hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
